Current Hooks and Rumors

WAMPUS HOOKS AND SUCH

This is general stuff and does not include PC-specific goals like “convince the Stump Witch to teach me new spells” and the like. This should be a good start for the holiday season.  Nor does this include what's going on in the play-by-post at the moment (as they don't exactly need 'hooks').  

RUMORS AND TALK

A transient farm-worker who’s just returned from Saltvale reports there have been sightings there of a faceless, ghostly gentleman in a white tuxedo. The phantom has been seen in town a bit, but chiefly around the edges of civilization, in the forest, as though looking for something.

A guy I know heard from another guy that the Living Totem Pole out on the plains woke up and moved a bit a few weeks back. No idea what that’s about. Apparently the darn thing stomps around a couple of times a year; the Cloud Rabbit savages believe it’s some kind of god, and its movement heralds great strife or something. Their shamans go to the Living Totem to learn new chants.

North-east of Thistlemarch, farmers and travellers have seen several cloudfolk barges coming together; they seem to be sculpting a temporary island of cloudstuff, perhaps for a wedding or something, as they are wont to do. AIR TRANSPORT REQUIRED

Hexley, Lord Chuffington, who rules a group of mobgoblins, is attempting to build his own town from scratch. He is recruiting - and paying decent money for - people who know about construction, fortification, military matters, and basic trades. Any PC who wants to spend a week or two teaching mobgoblins how to do X should let me know, and they will be compensated accordingly for their time.


ACTUAL REQUESTS FOR ASSISTANCE

A group of Black Eagle tribesmen have been camped out east of town for several days now; they say they are questing for a man with ‘great medicine’ who can assist them with some sort of problem.

The Red Bear Lumber Company has an ad in the newspaper recruiting guards for its lumber camps; seems the sasquatches are on the warpath again after some imagined slight. There is a standing bounty of $100 on sasquatch heads.

A Mr. Simplebottom, serving interests in River-Town, is in Thistlemarch trying to hire an expedition to go to Massacre Mesa. (Massacre Mesa is a long way away, this would take the involved PCs off on an expedition tangent which may take them out of Thistlemarch-focused play for some time)

Local vegetable farmer Jimmy Stinkfoot, long in need of a bride, has had a dream in which he had a savage princess for a wife; he’s now poking around town asking if anyone will go steal him a princess from one of the several barbarian tribes.

Angry mandrill and former hench-ape Habanero Pete is itching to return to his people, the bander-log; but it’s a long journey for one baboon. He’s looking for a few companions to share the road in exchange for some small money and a guided tour of bander-log country.

The Mad Margrave, who operates that keep north of town, generally keeps to himself, and it is said he distrusts all witches; and yet, lately, several of the Margrave’s agents have make discreet inquiries regarding their liege’s need for the aid of a sorceror...


LOOSE ENDS

The Charnel Caves of the Necronauts (discovered by the Rat-House Bastards) have not been fully explored. There was a whole section of catacombs that lead who-knows-where, not to mention the creepy fire-thing in the Screamatorium. REQUIRES PRESENCE OR INFO FROM A PC WHO HAS BEEN THERE

The ruined city of Crumbledown may yet hold mysteries - there is an entire quarter dominated by the giant skull-wasps which has yet to be explored, and that area may contain more passages downward into the remains of the ancient city beneath.

Who poured that giant-size potion on Ernie Pyewackett’s chicken feed, leading to the Giant Chicken Incident? Nobody knows. It doesn’t seem like the style of any of the local witches or adventuring-sorcerors, so perhaps there’s a wizard skulking about in secret... (I have no idea what someone would do to track this down directly, I just wanted to make sure it was out there)


GENERAL KNOWLEDGE ABOUT VARIOUS PLACES NEAR AND DISTANT

Saltvale is a dreary place where very little grows, as the ground is so damn salty. If you’re into dead trees, fog, and occasional zombie attacks, this might be the vacation spot for you. The local witch is Grammy Witherspoon, whose very gaze spoils foodstuffs. CLOSE

Crumbledown is a ruined city left over from Grandpa’s War. It is menaced by giant skullwasps and said to be haunted as well. Although the above-ground ruins are long-abandoned, there may yet be things worth salvaging from Crumbledown. CLOSE

Massacre Mesa, out in the badlands, features the vulture-men of Buzzard Gulch and assorted rocky desert hazards. Some folks go out that way to pan for gold. A religious commune built in the shadow of the Mesa ended in tragedy - twice - when all the people living there were found killed. EXPEDITION DISTANCE

Frogport lies at the heart of Snollygoster Swamp; it’s a fun little town populated by jazz-plaing frogs, river-travellers, ne’er-do-wells, and folks using the town as a home base to explore the Swamp and points eastward. The swamp itself is full of snollygosters (big lizard-things), swamp-ogres, and various other dangers, including rumors of a hidden tower where lives a wizard called the Swamp Hermit. EXPEDITION DISTANCE

River-Town is really a full-fledged city by Wampus standards, with a burgeoning river port, fancy clothes, white-washed townhomes, and the like. Within its environs are the Diamond Peacock (a famous brothel), the Silver Scorpion Casino, the Thunderbolt Brewery and associated Action Show, the Marvelous Menagerie, and some large tobacco plantations. EXPEDITION DISTANCE

Shining Lake is a massive inland body of water ringed by picturesque fishing villages. At the center of the lake, beneath the surface of the water, sits the domain of the magical fish-people, the Lake-born. EXPEDITION DISTANCE

And for the record, the hexes my son has been exploring are SE of Snollygoster Swamp, in the area called ‘Beyond the Bend’; but those are off-limits to other PCs right now :)